This blog is a great opportunity to share ideas about ways to
transform schooling as we know it, to help all students realise their
talents, passions and dreams. Be great to hear from anyone out there! Feel free to add a comment to Bruce's Blog and enter e-mail to receive postings

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I had a very enjoyable and stress free Xmas. Lovely breakfast with the family arranged by my daughters in one of my daughters new house. I followed this up with ham and buns at a musical friends place so it was pleasant to listen to the guitars. Then out to the beach for the evening meal and swim. Couldn't have been better. Even got some great presents - new frying pans and gumboots!

Simple pleasures

But it all makes you wonder. This year lots of people needed help with their budgeting and Christmas meal. And lots of people will have to face up to debts incurred which will be stressful. Ironically this is the season of increased family violence as well.

Humble beginnings

As an aside the Christmas (Christ's Mass) celebrations have an interesting and somewhat confusing history. It is a shame that schools are closed for the summer break because there are a lot of questions for children to research. How did Christmas evolve? How did Father Christmas get involved? Why is he also called Santa Claus? Who was Saint Nicholas? Why do we have a big feast, give presents and decorate a tree? Where did the idea of a conifer tree come from? When did cards begin to be sent? Why holly, mistletoe and ivy? And what is the origin of Boxing Day

It would be interesting for students to learn about the mix of pagan pre-christian and religious origins involved in Christmas. What questions and views do children have about Christmas?

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Chandran Nair

To be honest the issue of Christmas as a season of excess consumption has been brought to my mind through listening to a radio replay of a talk about 'Consumptionomics - Asia's role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet' given by Chandran Nair at the 2012Auckland Readers and Writers gathering .

Christmas is the peak season for retailers. In the USA a quarter of all spending occurs during the season and Boxing Day has evolved into a shopping day with the greatest turnover of any day.

Chandran Nair's point is that if the Asian countries consumed goods at the rate of the West the results will be catastrophic across the globe as nations scramble for diminishing resources.

He feels that this issue is important as failing Western 'market forces' countries are encouraging Asian countries to consume more to help save the global economy. It will be like Easter Island on a large scale where competing tribes felled all the trees in a competition to roll their huge monument into place.

He believes Asian governments find them selves at a crossroads. They may take up the challenge to consume to the level of Western nations or take the responsibility of leading the world to a more sustainable path. It is message for New Zealand as well who, he thinks, could be a model of a sustainable community.

Do they need the American dream?

For Asians to aim for the 'American Dream' is neither desirable or even possible. Imagine, he asks, all the resources that Asia would need to bring their citizens up to the consumption level of the West? Imagine the results if all Asians became middle class consumers . If the Chinese and Indians used as much energy per capita as Americans use their total power consumption would be 14 times as great as the United States! Take cars. If Asian countries reached Western levels their could be 3 billion cars in the world. Where would the fuel come for all theses vehicles? Similar calculations can be made for everything we take for granted in the West - even Christmas turkeys!

So, he believes, Asian governments need to reject the views of those who urge Asians to consume relentlessly - free markets, faith in technology and hope for the best is not a plan.

He is not arguing that Asians must remain poor , nor is he against economic development, or capitalism , or democracy. He is for 'contstrained consumerism', funnelled in a way that does not deplete the demand for resources that in turn depletes the environment.

Asian governments must prioritise and provide incentives to use fewer materials. Management of resources needs to be at the centre of all policy making if consumption habits are to be changed. Efficient public transport needs to be in place to replace cars and motorways - a lesson for New Zealand. This move away from today's extreme capitalism could mark the start of a new industrial revolution.
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How many cars are too many?

To achieve this will require strong and bold government interventions especially to combat vested interests. Such measures must be supplemented by 'draconian rules' constraining consumption of a range of goods , particularly fossil fuels, fisheries and forest products. It will require massive investments in public infrastructure to give people the transport, water and sanitation, health and education services badly need in Asia. Food, security and safety must be a priority.

Chandran Nair knows this will not be easy particularly for countries influenced by Western economics who believe prosperity can be achieved through conventional forms of consumption driven economic growth.

Collective welfare and a 'hands on' state is preferable to the destructive current ideology of less government and a 'free for all' unbridled market economy resulting in few greedy winners and lots of losers.

He concludes , 'if the governments of the region can rise to this challenge, it will be the decision makers in Beijing, Delhi and Jakarta that will determine whether our world has a future - not , as it has been for the last two centuries, the capitals of the West'.

Cutting back on Christmas excess might be a start for us?

Maybe looking after the needs of all people, particularly those living in poverty, would be a return to the true spirit of Christmas?

Sunday, December 09, 2012

My fifth most popular blog is one about the end of the school year so here it is again -slightly amended.There might be an idea that you might find useful?

Norman Rockwell painting of a classroom in the 50s

At the end of the school year it is a good idea to gather information from the students you are passing on. Not only is this a chance for you to get some insight about your teaching but it is also a great way to value the ‘voice’ of your students.It is also a good time for the students (and the teacher) to reflect on what has been achieved. This is preferable to letting the end of the year become 'fill in' time. As a principal I always encouraged teachers to work right up to the last minute. I had learnt, from experience as a teacher, that working hard is easier than improvising programmes the last week or so

One idea would be to develop a mini-unit of work with the students for them to reflect on their own achievements. Not only will this bring a sense of closure to the year but it will help the students develop a sense of accomplishment and an affirmation of their years efforts. One theme could be, 'This is what I could do at the beginning of the year and this is what I can do now', or, 'Things I am most proud of this year'.

The class could 'brainstorm' all the activities they have studied throughout the year. It would feature all the exciting content studies that have provided the 'energy' for the years student research and creativity. This in itself will remind the students of what an interesting year they have had.

A display, featuring artifacts from the various studies (and maths and language themes), could be developed with information on the 'big ideas' of each study.

Students could develop their own wall display, or chart, of things ( say, the top six) they have learnt during the year. This could include, not only ideas, but also poems and pieces of art. Digital cameras would be useful to capture visual information. An idea would be to develop a 'My Reflections and Memories of the Year' booklet, or 'Things I have learnt during the year', or 'Things I am most proud of,'or 'Talents I have developed during the year'.

Students might also like to include their thoughts and hopes for the year to come - this might involve questioning older students in the next class to gather 'data'.

One valuable idea ( really an evaluation of the culture the teacher has established) is to ask the students to write, for next years students, 'How to survive in this class', or 'Tips for New Students'. This might include ideas,to you, as the teacher, about how to improve the programme for the next year, and even things that students felt were not useful to them!
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We really loved the bush walks

Ideas for students at the end of the year to consider

1. What have been the best things you have done this year? Why?2. What would you liked to have done more of this year?3. What didn’t we do that I wish we had?4. In what way have I changed this year? What areas have I improved in, or grown to like more?5. What were the things I didn’t like most this year?6. What would you change about how I teach or the class?7. If you were giving advice for next years students of how to survive in style in my room, what would you say to them?

Below are some interesting sentences for students to finish that will give you some idea of how they see schools, teachers and themselves. What metaphors would they choose?

A school is a place where……………..
A teacher is a person who…………………
A student is a person who………………

It is interesting to see what metaphors students come up with if they see themselves as learners or someone who is taught things. For the first :do students see school as a place they have to go or a place they go to learn? For the second is the teacher a person who tells you what to do or is teacher a person who helps you learn? For the last is students some who is taught by teachers or a person who learns with teachers' help?

Try it. You might besurprised. You might even learn something.

A class newsletter to all parents , based on the reflections of the students, would be a great way to finish the year on a positive note.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Another week, with the end of year approaching fast. New Zealand and
Australian primary teachers are in the ‘gritting teeth and hanging on to the
end” stages of their school year, with a well earned break looming. Because of
this coming break, this is the last education readings posting for 2012. Things
will kick off again towards the end of January. Wouldn’t it be lovely for 2013
to see the end of GERM so that we can focus on what really matters - the
children!

“Perhaps the greatest evil of high stakes standardized
testing is that it takes our eyes away from the children and focuses them
instead on the tests themselves. Children become sources of data. Learning
becomes something that is cut, sliced, packaged and weighed.

Until we rid ourselves of this
impediment to education and find valid, humane, child centred forms of
assessment, testing will continue to STOP our children from learning.”

There is still hope - this is from USA. More
evidence for politicians to ignore.

“At
the PlayMaker school, don’t be surprised to find kids in a workshop or playing
a game, just not in front of a chalkboard. It’s part of a new movement that is
attempting to make education more fun--and work better.”

Here’s Bruce Hammonds’ review of Cathy
Wylie’s book that analyses the so-called “Tomorrow’s Schools’ neo-liberal
schooling system that was instituted in 1990. While there were ‘plusses’ from
this, Cathy suggests that there were more ‘minuses’ and that revisions are
needed. While NZ focussed, there’s plenty here for overseas readers.

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

In the 1980s a new political ideology
swept through Anglo American countries. It was a time of dramatic change as the
democratic welfare state was replaced bywhat has come to be known as a ‘Market Forces business oriented’
approach based on
small government, valuing self-interest, privatisation, competition, choice and
accountability. This neo liberal approach was believed to be the only way to
cope with dramatic worsening worldwide economic circumstances. A common phrase
at the time was TINA (there is no alternative).

New Zealand was not immune. The recently elected Labour
Government led by David Lange was influenced by finance minister Roger Douglas
and the Treasury. ‘Thatcherism’ in the UK, ‘Reaganism’ in the US and ‘Rogernomics’
in New Zealand – continued by National’s Ruth Richardson and alive but not so
well today!

The new ideology was applied across
the public service and education was not immune.

In 1986 an ‘earthquake ‘hit education
in the form of ‘Tomorrows Schools’; following the publication of the Picot
Report self-managing schools were born.

Cathy answers the questions: What was
the real effect of ‘Tomorrows Schools’? Has the New Zealand Schools system
improved as a result? And what changes are needed now to meet our expectations
of schools?

People who were principals during the
transition (as I was) will find the book enlightening and younger principals
will learn that a lot of shared wisdom was lost in the process.

It is interesting to find that New
Zealand was the only country to take self-managing schools to such extremes of
local control and now Cathy believes that we have ‘made self-management into a
barrier’ if we want all students to be treated equitably. Keep in mind our growing ‘achievement
gap’.

The impression given at the time was
that the then system was too bureaucratic, too centralised, to allow school flexibility
and initiative.

An early chapter Principals focuses on the situation before ‘Tomorrows Schools’.
Contrary to the myth being spread by those propagating change schools enjoyed considerable latitude in
comparison to other education systems. They had on-going connections with the inspectorate, the
local advisers and curriculum experts in the Department of Education and
teachers often belonged to networks of teachers developing and trialling new
ideas.

Inspectors and advisers could
‘connect individual teachers with expertise ….. They knew where good practice was occurring…they
could identify and encourage talent’. All schools had liaison inspectors and
inspectors arranged for teachers to visit other schools and to develop and
share ideas. As a result there was a healthy cross fertilisation of ideas. As Cathy writes ‘they could connect the
dots’ and ‘foster collective strengths of teachers working together’.

An OECD report in the early 80s was
full of praise for existing educational provisions and did not find people
wanting dramatic changes and was impressed with the engaging and active
learning that keeps children motivated to learn. New Zealand students do well and
still do, in international testing

But there were shortcomings. There
was no national systematic way to support schools. The locally elected Education Boards
looked after property and finance while inspectors focused on educational
issues. Both were involved in principal and teacher appointment. There was
growing concern with the failure rate of Maori students, communities were not
fully involved with their schools and a growing number of students were not
being catered for in secondary schools as students we were encouraged( by lack of jobs) to stay
at school longer.

Education Boards and inspectors
disappeared in the change and advisers placed with College Of Educations (later Universities) and employed on
contract. In the process connections and
collective wisdom was lost.

So where was the bureaucracy and over
centralisation that was blocking the initiative and creativity of the system? It was in the regulations to do with
staffing, with property and with resources for teaching. ’Tomorrows Schools
certainly had its attraction when it came to these issues. Responsibility for
such areas really appealed to principals.

‘Tomorrows Schools’ would tackle
bureaucracy but this came at a price. Key interconnections were lost. Schools
and Boards were on their own and this would create winners and losers.

An overseas observer described the
New Zealand approach as the ‘earthquake method of educational reform’. Teacher unions were excluded.
Changes were less to do with educational reasons but with political determination
to restructure the economy and the role of the state. David Lange, as Minister
of Education, at least did not allow education vouchers or privatisation to be
part of the mix.

It seems there was not much thought
given to the infrastructure needed to support the self-management of schools
and the sharing of useful ideas. The general tenor was that schools were to be
left to make their own decisions.

What eventuated was at best
‘fragmented freedom’. Schools in ‘better’ environments had the local expertise
to do well but self-management was ‘sown on uneven ground’. Principals and BOTs learnt ‘by the
seat of their pants’ and became occupied with compliance and the ‘demanding
twins’ of property and finance issues and less a focus on teaching and
learning. Competition between schools –
the result of an emphasis on parent choice had unfortunate effects. Some
schools ‘had the upper hand’. As a result self-management put one’s own school
first.

The years that followed were
demanding as the Ministry chopped and changed to keep schools viable. It was an era of ‘CRAP’as the Ministry and ERO ‘continually revised
all procedures’ Charters came and went. Strategy and annual plans were
introduced. Growing problems with failing schools resulted in a number of
safety net interventions. The introduction of the New Zealand Curriculum was
rolled (and NZCEA in secondary schools) added to the confusion. Schools were
clustered but schools took only what they needed. ERO were ‘the watchdog and
scold’. The new curriculum with its endless objectives, and arbitrary levels,
was a ‘mile wide and an inch deep’ but conscientious teachers did their best to
tick off objectives taught. ERO ensured they complied.

And for all this, the very students,
who were to be saved by self-management, still continued to fail. Literacy tasks forces were
established and Numeracy projects, and other ad hoc projects, to try to help
failing students.

Benign bureaucracy had been replaced
byfragmentation – out of the frying pan
into the fire!ERO and
the Ministry worked in isolation. The Ministry has become risk averse. It needs
a more effective engagement with schools but there is no longer the trust necessary.

The ‘too hasty and undercooked’
National Standards, a throwback to earlier days, are being imposed – the worse sort of centralisation
and schools were bullied into supplying their data to the Ministry. Ironically schools that resisted were
showing initiative and developing the creative programmes (based on the revised
Labour introduced 2007 New Zealand Curriculum) that underpinned the ethos of
self-managing schools. On the horizon lie league tables and national
testing – issues that will narrow the curriculum and encourage teachers to
teach to the tests and down play the creative arts. What is to be measured will become the measure
– will become the default curriculum.

The time has come for fresh thinking.
We ought not to have asked schools to stand alone without being part of a
supportive school district. Other countries have shown the success of supportive
infrastructures to both support and share ideas. Schools can no longer work in
isolation reinventing the wheel – too many schools ‘do not know what they do
not know’.

The current focus on school failure,
the ‘achievement gap’, has increased markedly as a result of market forces
ideology which has widened the ‘winner loser’ gap. Schools can always do better but
can only be truly successful if a more communal narrative (ideology) replaces
the current emphasis on self-interest.

Cathy concludes her book with some
hard hitting recommendations.

Schools need to ensure all students
succeed to realise their unique set of gift and talents, equipped with the
learning competencies to thrive in the uncertain times ahead. ‘The current New
Zealand schooling system,’ Wylie writes, ‘cannot meet these expectations’. We have not been able to make the
best about self-managing schools…..Tomorrows Schools has certainly enhanced
school initiative…..(but) on their own they are not sufficient to improve
educational opportunities and outcomes across the board…..it has been too uneven.
It has yet to reach all students. Our
system lacks the national and local infrastructure of connections to share and
keep building effective teaching practices so that schools can do what we ask
of them…The Ministry has largely played a hands off role’ providing one
size fits all solutions relying on ensuring schools comply to regulations..
Between 16 to 20% of schools struggle each year’.

Schools need the’ opportunity to
learn from their peers in other schools…There is an unmet need for cross fertilisation
that the inspectors and advisers once played, such as arranging inter-school visits so that
teachers and principals can see more effective practices and have the
opportunity to discuss how these practices work, how to bring about change’.

‘We need a fresh approach. We need to
construct a network of education authorities that support and challenge schools….in
ways that make more of the schools than schools can make of themselves – ways that
nurture the capacity of schools to self-manage. ‘We haven’t the time or the
money to reinvent the wheel.’

The current fragmentation of
government agencies are counterproductive. ‘The past 33 years have shown limitations of
positioning each school as a separate island. It will be connections that
increase the effectiveness of our schools.’
What is needed is ‘integrate the key strengths of what was lost with Tomorrows Schools….This
means more than tweaking our current structures and ways of doing things. It
means changes in the government agencies and some changes for schools and
boards… I suggest more challenging
support at the local level, more connections to share and build knowledge and
more coherence between the different layers of the schooling system.’

Such connected infrastructures will
make real difference.’
We have the experience and knowledge now to create the more dynamic schooling
system that our children need. It is time to give all our self-managing schools
the vital connections, support and challenge they need to succeed.’

(To appreciate the full message best
to read the book particularly the recommendations)

‘A
brand-new study on the academic effects of homework offers not only some
intriguing results but also a lesson on how to read a study -- and a reminder
of the importance of doing just that: reading studies (carefully) rather
than relying on summaries by journalists or even by the researchers
themselves.’

Jacob
Barnett is an American mathematician and child prodigy. At 8 years old, Jacob
began sneaking into the back of college lectures at IUPUI. After being
diagnosed with autism since the age of two and placed in his school's special
ed. program, Jacob's teachers and doctors were astonished to learn he was able
to teach calculus to college students.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Education stands at a crossroad caught in the lights of market forces ideology which
blinds all but a few to beginnings of a new era some call the Second Renaissance
– a new creative era.

The freedom to learn.

In his 1980
essay ’The World of Tomorrow and the Person of Tomorrow’ psychologist Carl
Rogers contemplated the kind of people that would usher in the new era as
people with the capacity to understand , bring about and take part in a
paradigm shift.

It surely is
over to educationalists to take a positive part in fleshing out Rogers' vision?
The problem is that schools are constrained by reactionary compliance
requirements that emphasize an emphasis on literacy and numeracy that are being
reinforced by arbitrary National Standards and comparative ‘league tables’.
Unfortunately this emphasis has side-lined the positive future emphasis of the
2007 New Zealand National Curriculum which focussed on the bigger picture of
developing the competencies in all students of being lifelong learners –
learners able to ‘seek, use and create their own knowledge’.

The current
government is undervaluing such competencies and this must change. It will be
over to ‘persons of tomorrow’ to take the lead. It will not be easy but the
current all-powerful corporate competitive market forces model will not solve
problems beyond their comprehension.

There is no shortage of thinkers to show the way although those who become involved will
have to ‘make their own paths’. Contrary to Mark Twain’s advice that ‘you can’t
play an uncertain trumpet’ future thinkers will have to learn to play an
uncertain trumpet.

Galileo is forced to recant.

There is a
parallel to the beginnings of the first renaissance. At this time the Catholic
Church defined the beliefs that were to be seen as the unquestioned truth.The first to question the church faced the
inquisition, were tortured and then burnt alive at the stake. This torture was
seen not as punishment but as a means to bring the truth to the surface.

They may have
painful beginnings but paradigm shifts have a life of their own.Galileo, working in the liberal court of the
powerful Medici family in Florence, challenged the views of the church by
writing his dialogues about the observations that the earth went around the sun
and not vice versa. He also paid the price and after torture recanted – the
church even refused him a proper funeral.

Even Michael
Fullan, long an ally of top down literacy numeracy reform, seems to have seen
the light and recanted now believing that innovative educational progress
depends on identifying and sharing the work of ‘deviant teachers’. To value the
input of creative teachers and share their ideas do this requires the
establishment of a new educational environment.

It is not
easy to go against a system that was designed for past industrial age
conditions that required mass education focusing on the ‘three Rs’; a system
that used standardised approaches, based on measurement to sort out students
for their predetermined place in life.

Standardised learning making a comeback!!

A visit to
any school, except for early education centres, will show how old thinking
permeates how the school is run and structured. In most schools, as one
commentator has said, ‘it is as if literacy and numeracy have gobbled up the
whole curriculum’.Increasingly what is to
be tested will become the default curriculum and diversity and creativity is
all but being crushed. Standardisation of teaching sorting students by ability
is, unintentionally or otherwise, devaluing the very competencies and the
individual creativity the future requires.

Standardisation,
conforming to imposed beliefs, and teaching to the tests leads us back to the
past. The future is about valuing creativity, diversity and requires personalising
learning.

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Personalising learning - talent development.

David
Hargreaves and several others have pointed out that institutional change comes
in two forms .The first is change that does not depart far from existing
practices. This gradual change he calls reformation . This is where schools
are placed today.

The second
form of change is more a paradigm shift and departs considerably from existing
practices can be called ‘transformational’.

While our
Ministry, following direction from the government, is pushing schools into the
test oriented environment of the UK, the US and Australia there are those who warn that such a narrow curriculum will destroy the possiblity of a creative economy. Yong Zhao, a respected American educationalist, has research to show
while American students might not score highly in International ‘league tables’
they score the highest in confidence, creativity and innovation. Yong points
out that Americans still develop the most patents, the most Nobel Prizes and that
the Chinese education system will never produce a Lady Gaga or a Steve Jobs!

Lady Gaga:Not possible in a standardised system

All about democracy and trust.

A recent
Guardian article features the development of Lumiar Schools in Brazil, founded
in 2003 by Ricardo Semler a radical businessman who had previously turned his
huge family firm over to its workers. Semler believes that students learn best
when they have a say in what they are learning. Students choose to involve
themselves in project based learning through which students pick up life skills
by osmosis. Semler was encouraged by University of Chicago statistics that
showed that 94% of what is learnt at school is never used in later life. ‘We
are trying to prove that by giving kids freedom,’ says Semler, ‘ they will end up better educated…that they can have a much better
existence and be more prepared for life if we don’t teach them the stupid
things that traditional schools do’. Having satisfied himself that his adult
workers thrive on responsibility he set out to show children would react the
same way. Semler, a Harvard graduate, says that for children ‘learning is what
they do best. We kill it for them…everything we do is a learning experience.
Our assumptions about human beings – is that they are basically honest and
interested and ready for gratifying work –were not wrong…we have the same
assumptions about schools and what we’ve seen so far corroborates what we
thought’.

Many early
education centres make use of the similar ideas of the Italian Emilio Reggio
approach and the American ‘Big Picture Company’ extends a similar philosophy
for secondary students.

Such developments
are the work of creative deviants and are spread by the strength of their ideas.
We need to return to an environment that trusts teachers and allows for
‘deviant teachers’ to ‘emerge’. New Zealand has always had such creative
individuals, Elwyn Richardson the most notable, but in recent times teachers
have been captured by approved ideas spread by contractual advisers. The
Ministry and the Education Review Office (and sadly some school principals)
have much in common with the Catholic Church and the Inquisition of Galileo’s
time!

An ERO team!

Jay Allard,
one of Microsoft’s vice – presidents, was right on the mark when he said in
Business Week (Dec 2006) ‘the only way to change the world is to imagine it
different than the way it is today. Apply too much wisdom and knowledge that
got us here, and you end up where you started. Take a fresh look from a new
perspective and get a new result.’

Galileo knew
this!

Human
beings, Lumiar thinkers believe, are capable of defining their own life
project. Ones life’s project specifies what one wants to do with one’s life.
Babies are born with an incredible capacity to learn. That is what makes
education possible but schools have to be transformed in line with this
principle.

Learning is
not something given to students through predetermined teaching - it is being able
to do something you couldn’t do before. It is an active doing approach – something
achieved by individuals making feely a conscious decisions to accomplish something,
not by themselves but by interacting and collaborating with their teachers and
other students.

On one hand
there is depth of content understanding to gain and at the same time the schools
needs to ensure all students develop the competencies to learn. Students will leave with
their unique content learning but all need to be equipped with competencies to
learn. This is the essence of personalised learning.

Students
learn while doing things – they involve themselves in projects in which they
see as important. Educationalist Jerome Bruner has written the ‘teaching is the
canny art of intellectual temptation’. Students learn, as do scientists and
artists, by enlightened trial and error – helped sensitively by adults.

It is
important to appreciate that not all learning is fun. What it does mean is
that, as Guy Claxton has written, children need to see the point of learning,
that it is something they want to achieve, reach for or do. With this in mind
students will involve themselves in difficult, even painful, learning tasks.
Anyone who has seen a student learning to ride a bike, swim, or skateboard,
or play a musical instrument cannot but conclude that children are capable of
incredible learning feats that are difficult and hard.

Contrary to
the current focus on intentional teaching project based learning can lead
individual students to explore unplanned content to their advantage. In this
respect students are learning like artists – new ideas unfolding as
opportunities arise. Every study undertaken provides opportunities for students
to follow up their areas of interest – to personalize their learning while at
the same time working with others as required.

Current
assessment is constrained by learning objectives and criteria and increasingly
by an emphasis on summative National Standards in literacy and numeracy. With
personalised learning, or project based learning, assessment is seen by the
depth of understanding and creativity of the students, by what they can do,
demonstrate, exhibit or store in their portfolios.Constant feedback and assessment is part of
the teacher’s role.

Like Galileo
we need to imagine new ways to interpret the world and break free of
politically imposed dictates.

Schools need
to re-imagine to respect the freedom to learn that is innate in all students,
to value and build on their own set of interests and passions and to expose
them to experiences that will challenge their imaginations.

It is time
for ‘deviant teachers’ to stand up for their beliefs, better still whole
schools and best of all networks of schools.

At least it
is no longer the practice to burn people at the stake for challenging outdated
authorities – at any level of the system.The future depends on such people. Roger's 'tomorrow people'

Friday, November 23, 2012

Another pattern in the GERM movement, across the world, is the
hypocrisy of the authorities over the use of ‘achievement data’. While schools
are expected to ‘play the game’ and follow the requirements to the letter, the
authorities play by different rules. I’ve read many overseas articles on this
topic, and now evidence is starting to appear in New Zealand that indicates a
similar process is happening here. We’re not yet quite sure what the intent of
this fudging of information is, and investigations are continuing. In the
meantime Kelvin Smythe has covered this in a number of articles.

‘This
study of the links between assessment, learning and achievement revealed for
the first time what many people interested in this field – myself included –
had always suspected. To use an agricultural analogy, ‘Weighing the pig
doesn’t make it grow.’

Les Treichel, Retired Queensland Regional
Director of Education, has sent me this document that he prepared a couple of
years back. This is well worth reading, by principals and others in leadership
roles, and also by all who are interested in real education as opposed to GERM
infected education.

Popular 'neuromyths' about how we learn are creating
confusion in the classroom

Goes with all the
other learning myths, like national standards, raising achievement, national
testing, performance pay, charter schools, and so on….. My personal favourite
myth is ‘brain based learning.’Thanks
to Michael Fawcett @teachernz for this link.

Education
is a Process of Living and Not a Preparation for Future Living

Written for the USA; however this is very
transferable to education in all GERM infected countries. It’s a longish
article but well worth reading in its entirety. Will provide great ammunition
to support you in debates with deformers and to inform parents etc.